Part of what motivates me as an activist is that I assume people’s attitudes and ideas are not set in stone. That’s a good assumption. I say that based on looking at my own past behavior.
In my early to mid 20s, I said some of the things I hear here to my friend Jim who was involved in ‘animal rights’, an idea which seemed absurd to me then. How about voting rights for cows and pigs? That’s what I often asked him. ( What’s also disappointing is that Jim and I both thought animal rights conflicted with fighting against racism and poverty. )
I have additional examples of ideas and behaviors that contrast with my current attitude. Fresh in my mind are memories of me having and expressing prejudiced ideas about Blacks, Muslims, Arabs, and other groups, along with saying and doing sexist things. That was from my teens to about my late 20s.
Also—-troubled about my own sexuality—-in high school and while in the Navy, I at times disparaged people I suspected of being gay.
As another example, even though I had biracial nephews and a biracial niece at the time, when I was 23 I screamed out my car window, in a drunken rage one dark early morning, spewing the nastiest racial insults I could muster as I drove through what I was pretty sure was a predominately Black neighborhood near Trenton, NJ.
I can now laugh at parts of this story. Mixed with other reasons, what triggered my rage was that two prostitutes ran off with about $120 of my dead-end-job money. I was sober enough to retain thru all these years the memory of the two young women getting irritated as I lectured them about their need to go to college, as I undressed.
But they didn’t slip out the door of Mount’s Motel on Route 1 until I told them about my (likely racist?) fantasy of sodomizing Black women. The older, perhaps more experienced one said, “We’re going to get a drink of soda. We’ll be right back.” They somehow had a cab waiting for them only steps away from the motel room door, which they didn’t bother to shut on their way out.
Vivid memories of this and other examples of ideas and behaviors in stark contrast to my current perspective often flood into my consciousness. Sometimes, I stop what I’m doing and just sit still for a while, giving myself a timeout, having outgrown slapping or punching myself in the face or extinguishing cigarettes on my skin. But most of the time I keep going with my day, coaching myself mentally, “do better now, and moving forward.”
The majority of the people I encounter who seem to oppose what I currently stand for as an activist usually aren’t as nasty I’ve been at various points in my life. The brain in my skull is the same one that was there 15 or 20 years ago (though with perhaps shrinkage in some areas due to aging).
So, I’m the same person, but with ideas, attitudes, and behaviors that differ from what I had 20 or 25 years ago. That’s why I strive, imperfectly, to address my own, and when appropriate, others’ behaviors and attitudes, instead of focusing as if I myself or that person himself or herself were the problem.
This is also why I think the concept of good and evil is obsolete. We should reject it just as we’ve replaced ideas about demonic possession with our understanding of mental illness. Believing in good and evil is unscientific. The reality is that we have good and bad situations, not good and bad people.
I have faith in the ability of people who don’t agree with me. They can address these issues on terms that work for them. Non-violent or violent direct action aimed at disrupting the exploitation of animals or rescuing them is another matter.
But as far as public discourse is concerned I respectfully suggest engaging with folk as honestly as we can–instead of trying to change their minds—is the best we can do. One can only change one’s own mind.
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